Chapter 12 - Elias Met the Version of Adrian Melanie Had KnownAdrian came to Elias’s apartment six weeks after the closet.
This time Elias let him in.
Not because he wanted reconciliation.
Because Adrian had requested one conversation through attorneys, and Elias wanted to hear him without the adrenaline of discovery.
Adrian looked different.
No tailored jacket.
No expensive watch.
He wore jeans and a gray sweater.
He looked younger.
Smaller.
More like the man Elias first met at a gallery opening fourteen months earlier.
They sat across from each other.
Adrian smiled sadly.
“You look good.”
Elias hated that his body reacted to the voice.
Love did not obey court filings.
“You have fifteen minutes.”
Adrian nodded.
“I’m sorry about the card.”
“Which part?”
“Opening it.”
“Using it?”
“All of it.”
“Northlight?”
“I’m working with your attorney.”
“That’s not an apology.”
Adrian looked down.
“I changed the document.”
Elias stopped breathing.
He had known.
Hearing it was different.
“You switched the ownership page.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t give you forty percent.”
“Why not?”
“Beacon Ridge.”
Elias frowned.
Adrian explained the debt.
The personal guarantee.
The need to keep Northlight fully under his control if he needed to borrow against it.
Elias laughed in disbelief.
“So you sold me forty percent of something because you needed my money, then legally kept one hundred percent because you needed the company.”
“Yes.”
“That’s fraud.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Adrian looked up.
“What?”
“You didn’t know then.”
“I knew it was wrong.”
“Exactly.”
Silence.
Elias leaned back.
“Did you love me?”
Adrian’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Don’t answer fast.”
“I don’t need to think.”
“You lied about everything.”
“Not everything.”
“What wasn’t a lie?”
Adrian looked around the apartment.
“The night we stayed up until four talking about your father.”
Elias’s chest tightened.
“The Sunday morning I cooked eggs and burned them.”
A memory.
Real.
“The first time you showed me your photographs.”
Another.
“The way I felt when you called.”
Adrian’s voice broke.
“I loved you.”
Elias stared.
“Then why wasn’t I on the lease?”
“Because I was terrified.”
“Of what?”
“Actually living it.”
Elias frowned.
Adrian continued.
“With you, I could imagine being honest.”
“But?”
“Imagining it and waking up inside it are different.”
Elias felt anger.
“So I was a fantasy.”
“No.”
“You loved the idea of leaving.”
“Yes.”
“Not necessarily me.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
That answer was finally honest enough to hurt.
Elias nodded.
“Okay.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“I thought if I got the apartment first, if I got the company stable, if I paid the debt—”
“Then you’d become brave.”
“Yes.”
Elias laughed softly.
“You thought courage was a financial milestone.”
Adrian smiled through tears.
“That sounds like something Melanie would say.”
Elias’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t turn us into versions of each other.”
Adrian stared.
“You spent fourteen months telling me who she was.”
“I know.”
“She’s not who you said.”
“No.”
“What did you tell her about me?”
Adrian looked away.
“That you were a consultant.”
“That’s it?”
“No.”
Elias waited.
“I told her you were difficult.”
He laughed.
“Of course.”
“When I came home upset.”
“You blamed me.”
“Sometimes.”
Elias understood.
Adrian used each relationship to explain the emotional residue of the other.
If he fought with Elias, he told Melanie work was stressful.
If Melanie challenged him, he told Elias she was controlling.
Every life metabolized the cost of the other.
“You never had to be the bad guy in your own story.”
Adrian looked at him.
“That’s what my therapist said.”
“You’re in therapy?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Adrian smiled bitterly.
“Melanie made it a condition.”
Elias frowned.
“For what?”
“Nothing. Not legally. She just said if I ever wanted to apologize again, I should do it after talking to someone who wouldn’t confuse guilt with accountability.”
That sounded like Melanie.
Elias almost smiled.
Adrian noticed.
“You two talk?”
“Sometimes.”
His expression changed.
Jealousy.
Tiny.
Immediate.
Elias stared.
“You cannot be serious.”
“What?”
“You’re jealous.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Adrian laughed awkwardly.
“This whole thing is bizarre.”
“No. You are.”
Elias stood.
“Even now you want each of us emotionally positioned around you.”
“That’s not fair.”
“There it is.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Elias continued.
“I don’t want Melanie.”
“I didn’t say—”
“And she definitely doesn’t want me.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“She’s straight.”
“That’s not the point.”
Elias stepped closer.
“We talk because we both need evidence.”
Adrian looked ashamed.
“And because sometimes she’s the only person who understands what it’s like to miss someone you’re furious at.”
That landed.
Adrian looked up.
Elias’s eyes filled.
“I miss you.”
Adrian stood.
“Elias.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I miss what I thought we were.”
Adrian nodded.
“So do I.”
“No.”
Elias shook his head.
“You miss access.”
Adrian flinched.
“You miss being able to call and know I’ll answer.”
Silence.
“You miss knowing Melanie will still organize your life when you panic.”
Adrian looked down.
“You miss us making your fear easier.”
Elias opened the door.
“That’s over.”
Adrian stood there.
Then whispered:
“Is there any chance in the future?”
Elias thought.
Not about love.
About trust.
“No.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Elias continued:
“Maybe someday I’ll forgive you.”
Adrian looked up.
“But I don’t want forgiveness to become another deadline you wait for.”
Adrian nodded.
Then left.
Elias closed the door.
He leaned against it.
Cried for ten minutes.
Then made dinner.
Not because he was healed.
Because ordinary life continued even after the person you thought was your future walked out.
May you like
And for the first time in fourteen months—
Elias ate without checking his phone to see whether Adrian had finally chosen him.
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